Miles plays game of chicken

LSU coach Les Miles is a shill for Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, which is based in Baton Rouge, La.

According to USA Today, Miles has been the spokesman for Cane’s since 2008, his face splattered on billboards with the mascot, Cane II, a yellow lab.

Cane’s has 146 locations in 17 states and was founded by and owned and operated by Baton Rouge native Todd Graves.

But Miles’ team, the Tigers, is playing in the Chick-fil-A bowl in Atlanta for the third time in his eight seasons at the school.

“I have a chicken issue,” Miles said shortly after the bowl pairings were announced early this month.

“As you guys know, I’m having a real conflict,” he added last week before the team left for Atlanta.

“I’ve already had some,” he said when asked if had partaken of the Chick-fil-A sandwich. “I understand the sensitivity that Todd (Graves) can have, and I as well. It’s hard on me as well.”

It’s enough to make Graves wince.

“There’s going to be a lot of chicken going on at that stadium, and it’s not going to be Raising Cane’s chicken,” Graves said jokingly on WAFB Channel 9 in Baton Rouge. “When the Chick-fil-A invited LSU, naturally I thought Les would turn it down.”

The players don’t seem to mind.

“Everywhere you look, there are ice chests full of Chick-fil-A sandwiches for us,” said LSU senior offensive tackle Josh Dworaczyk, who also played for the Tigers in the 2008 Chick-fil-A Bowl, told USA Today. “You can eat as many Chick-fil-A sandwiches as you could possibly want.”

Trivia time

What was the Mountain West’s record in bowl games this season?

Qualdump

Those of you who think that the city doesn’t need a new stadium are flat wrong.

Gallery went to the Holiday Bowl and sat in section T14, Row 1, Seat 15 for Thursday night’s Holiday Bowl.

And had water dripping on the right sleeve all night.

If Gallery gets pneumonia, a lawsuit may be considered.

These were not free tickets. Gallery’s wife is a UCLA alum and she paid for them herself.

The fireworks were pretty good, the game far less so, but the whole experience was, you could say, dampened by the leaky roof.

Trivia answer

Normally the owner of a good bowl record, the MW was a woeful 1-4 this year.